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Procrastination is a big problem for writers. The Economist takes a view, based on research and economic theory: New-year irresolution.

What seems to work is pre-commitment. Homer tells the story of Ulysses. He wanted to hear the sirens’ song but wanted to avoid being lured to his death by it, so he tied himself to the mast of his ship. (The other sailors had wax in their ears.)

Bin man or Environmental Maintenance Officer? And perhaps I’m sitting in a glass house throwing stones because I call myself CEO and Writer-in-chief but now the BBC has given us a delightful list of ridiculous titles, including:

“Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.”— Donald Norman

The worst academic writing is notorious for using complicated words, impenetrable theories and name dropping. It makes academia feel like it’s a closed shop or religious cult where you can’t get on unless you know the secret handshake and use the right jargon.

Focus equals results. This is an important understanding. ‘Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,’ said Steve Jobs. ‘That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products’. It’s also true for people and work traffic planning.

Everyone’s talking about ‘big data’. There’s no doubt that there is more data than ever before. As George Dyson writes ‘when the digital universe began, in 1951 in New Jersey, it was just 5 kilobytes in size’. Today, by some estimates, the total amount of data in the world is 2.7 zettabytes.